Simen Krüger

Norway

SIMEN: THE BENCHMARK IN THE N°1 CROSS-COUNTRY TEAM IN THE WORLD

Simen Hegstad Krueger was a bit of a nobody in the team, as he got on board the plane to Pyeongchang. No more than two weeks later he returned home as everybody’s darling. The now 25 year old wrote one of the most memorable stories of the winter games. After one minute in the skiathlon he fell, and broke his pole. Then he demonstrated to the sporting public, what a Redster race set up really is: overtaking all 67 competitors to then launch one of the craziest attacks on the Gold in the history of the Olympics four kilometres before the finish. “As I lay there in the snow, I thought it would be the worst day in my life. But it turned out to be the best”, the 2015 U23 World Champion beamed, who then followed up with Silver in the 15 km Skating and Gold in the Relay (fastest split time over the competitors). For his second season in the World Cup Simen’s got a lot of ambitions: “I want to become a more all-round cross-country athlete, especially by improving my Classic technique. After the Olympic Games I needed some time to get my motivation back again. But now I feel stronger than last year. Not a lot has changed, as I’ve got both feet firmly on the ground. The only thing is I’m no longer in pursuit, but the benchmark for all the others.” And he’s also the benchmark in the number 1 Cross-Country team in the world.